The Government’s urgent bid to ‘build back better’ highlights a real need to boost construction output, and fast. Yet dwindling supplies of key building materials have seriously impacted the construction industry throughout 2021.
A rise in material costs
The effect of the pandemic and the government’s Brexit deal has caused serious upheaval, resulting in increased costs, demand, and shipping expenses. This has delayed projects and extended build timelines.
As demand surged post-lockdown, materials became harder to come by. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's (BEIS) Monthly Statistics of Building Materials and Components report for October revealed that the price of materials has risen in each of the last 12 months.
Reduction in material supply
ONS has advised the reduction in output was likely due to the supply chain issues and shortages of materials
According to The Office for National Statistics (ONS), the construction industry as a whole remains smaller than it was in February 2020, albeit only by 1%. It was also down in the third quarter of this year, falling back by 1.5% in the three months to September.
ONS has advised this reduction in output across the industry was likely due to the supply chain issues and shortages of materials. The ONS announcement said “anecdotal evidence” suggested, “the rising prices of raw materials such as steel, concrete, timber, and glass, along with the difficulty in sourcing these materials for jobs contributed to the overall fall in the quarter.”
Diminishing material supply
As the lack of materials continues to push supply chains to their limits, the new shipping rules UK exporters selling to the EU are experiencing to get their shipments across borders has made the situation even direr.
Worse still, many EU companies are choosing to buy ‘locally’ in the EU to avoid the hassle. This is seriously restricting UK-EU business, and the problem is the same in the other direction. So we’re left in a situation where key building materials including timber, concrete, and steel remain highly sought after yet supplies are rapidly diminishing.
Increase in off-site construction
Building with wood allows faster and lower carbon builds, and also increases the amount of off-site construction
To put these shortages into perspective, the price of sawn or planned wood increased by 3 percent during April and May, and imported plywood prices also rose by 4 percent, having already risen by more than 12 percent between March and April earlier this year.
Looking year-on-year, imported plywood was over 29 percent more expensive in May than it was in 2020. This is hugely frustrating for those working in timber construction, which had been enjoying a new boost in popularity, and rightly so. Building with wood, not only allows faster and lower carbon builds, but it also increases the amount of off-site construction.
Quality control
From a safety perspective, one of the greatest benefits of modular construction is enforced quality control. Within an off-site ‘factory-type environment, numerous safety checks can be made and monitored.
This will help ensure each component meets the acceptable levels of industry standards and performance, including fire. In turn, this can help improve the integrity of the build quality in the finished product.
Substandard practices
Over the past four years, the industry has been working hard to tighten up processes and invest heavily in research and development. Zeroignition certainly has this first hand.
With material shortages rife, my concern is that as the UK construction industry rushes to complete projects they may begin to focus on the equal or approved clause, substituting quality materials for more readily available sub-standard materials that have not necessarily been held to the same strict safety standards. This has the potential to destroy the positive progress we’ve made in achieving greater fire safety since the Grenfell tragedy, as the notion of getting the job done begins to take hold, despite the materials specified not being fit for purpose.
Fire safety concerns
Building Safety Bill legislation will help to keep fire safety at the forefront and ensure safer builds
The industry simply cannot afford to lose sight of the end goal, and I hope that the Building Safety Bill legislation will help to keep fire safety at the forefront and ensure safer builds without exception.
Knowledge of the new regulatory regime must be robust, so appropriate decisions can be made to drive progress. The addition of meaningful sanctions will act as a powerful deterrent to the minority of companies who remain focused only on cost-down and tight timelines.
The emergence of new and safer products
Innovation is fundamental to this progress. The Government must allocate some of the intended investment to support third-party product testing facilities. Sadly, existing labs are facing overwhelming backlogs. No testing means no new and safer products entering the market.
There is one potential silver lining in all of this, particularly for manufacturers of lesser-known, quality materials that are fit for purpose but not widely used. These shortages could open out the market to them as frequently used products become increasingly hard to come by.
Newer, fit-for-purpose products
Familiar products are in short supply the market has to open up and consider other innovative products
We know the familiarity of a product breeds confidence in it, and of course, the cost will always be an important swing factor, particularly in this industry, but now these products are in short supply the market has to open up and consider other innovative products.
These materials may have been previously overlooked frequently due to price, often serve the same purpose, or even provide supreme quality, meaning the shortage could result in better-built buildings.
Maintaining building safety
Business in our industry is tough, but now is not the time to lose sight of safety to simply get the job done. Collaboration is key to ensuring all buildings are fit for their purpose. Without this guarantee, it’s impossible to rule out reliving dreadful tragedies of the past.
There is no doubting, 2022 won’t bring an end to the materials and labor shortages, and this has the very real potential to negatively affect product specification, especially about fire, as specifiers scramble to get their hands on products to move builds along, without meticulously confirming it is fit for purpose.